Most "Chinese" online seem to be paid trolls who deliberately feed misleading and false information. Either that or they have a switch in the brain where any critisism of China leads to a nationalistic brain freeze where they regurgitate silly propoganda.
The Hukou system is broken and inconsistent. Getting mine revoked was the biggest pain the ass. I'm sure there are anecdotal evidence to support your view, but the reality is the law is very differently applied depending on where you are in China. I know from first had experience the the original poster is correct.
There are so many things wrong with China and the world today, there is simply no reason to make things up, and much of what is in this piece is wild speculation or outright fabrication, belittling the real struggles of some featured in it.
Pretending this is somehow how China specifically operates is disingenuous
All the vast majority of people in the "West" know about China is whatever happens to be propagated by mainstream propagandists for current purposes. Ignorance is much more common (and hence likely) than disingenuity.
You're wrong. Look at the comments below - you're reacting emotionally and not doing your research properly. I apologize if I'm mistaken, but I'm guessing you're Chinese. I've seen a lot of Chinese people get defensive over little things like this and respond with knee-jerk attacks, but it's really unnecessary. As your country gains influence worldwide you'll only see more articles like this - best get used to it and try to respond in a more useful way.
Indeed. The western people have been brainwashed and have absolutely no critical thinking skills on anything related to China. There are only very few that do not blindly accept everything the western media say about China. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i915eArrego
The China that the author describes is not the China I've seen. Housing prices may be high, but he neglects to mention that it's common for companies to provide housing to their employees. Yes, people will ask you about your money - but that's culture, and it's not impolite.
There are a lot of untruths in his article, but it's too long to pick apart. A big one, though, is about appreciation for foreigners. China does in fact have laws about foreigners, but most are designed to protect them and avoid international incidents. For example, several schools around the Shaolin Temple offer practical training in everything from hand-to-hand combat to spears to swords. Only three, however, have passed safety regulations to accept foreigners. The Chinese also likes to tell you that you're special, because they think it endears you to them, whether it's true or not.
I'll end by saying: it's hard to judge China through a western perspective.
You are totally correct. The Western notion of China and Chinese labor is totally wrong.
Still, do you think people would care if they knew? I ask because I would have totally bought this had I stumbled onto it yesterday not knowing what I know now. I would have bought this for a friend and never thought twice about it. After reading this post I definitely would not purchase. Irrational? Maybe.
Edit: I see your response above. Thanks. I may actually purchase. Just want to think about it. :)
Seems to me that it's far more likely that you are the one who is misinformed as opposed to people living in China. Not sure what this lack of political chatter that you allude to is to be honest. Anybody who actually follows politics in China knows this statement to be utter nonsense.
I don't think jumping down someone's throat for innocent ignorance is too productive.
And speaking as someone who has lived in China, their misconceptions of the West are comically bad as well. That's what you get with state controlled media and people learning about the West by watching Friends or Transformers.
Educated Westerners generally know far less about China than educated Chinese people know about the West.
This really shows in conversations about China. Anti-Chinese propaganda has dramatically ratcheted up in the West (it really began during the Trump administration), and since most people know nothing about China to begin with, they basically believe what they're exposed to in the media. People are operating with such a wildly distorted, wacky view of China that it's nearly impossible to have an intelligent discussion about the country.
You're right, people in China are aware of this - and they bring it up all the time... but God help you if you (as a foreigner) do.
It's a common mentality with the Chinese (speaking as one myself)... only you are allowed to criticize your kind, any outside criticism is presumptuous and arrogant. This attitude pisses me off, since it prevents us from learning from everyone else on this rock.
This is such a ridiculous claim and also extremely easy to debunk if you have any friends in China they will show you immediately this is false. Yet not a single one comment mentions it. Goes to show the level of discourse happen in the west about anything china related.
You underestimate chinese people. Not everybody is successfully brainwashed and believes everything what chinese media or science tell them. They are extremely critical internally, but would never admit that publicly. Their privacy standards are much higher than in the west for a good reason. They are really spied upon, in a much grander scale. Eg their social media profiles are never with real names, and are invite-only. Facebook or Google realname policies won't fly there.
So independent confirmation from westerners has its value.
If we treat what rural Chinese people are doing nowadays as standard operation, the westerners are just barbarians. Don't waste time on these non sense, lets decide which one is "STANDARD"
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